Rogue Legacy is a genealogical rogue-"LITE" where anyone can be a hero. Each time you die, your child will succeed you. Every child is unique. One child might be colorblind, another might have vertigo-- they could even be a dwarf. That's OK, because no one is perfect, and you don't have to be perfect to win this game.

Reviews

"Rogue Legacy is a must-play, and a steal at its $15 price tag." 90/100
--GameFront

"Rogue Legacy rewarded my patience and tenacity; that's a lesson any developer can take from its twisted family tree." 9/10
--Polygon

"This is a game that won't just eat up your time, but it will devour it." 8.5/10
--Destructoid

"... an immensely rewarding action game that strikes a terrific balance between permadeath and progress." 8.5/10
--GameSpot

Steam Big Picture

About This Game

Rogue Legacy is a genealogical rogue-"LITE" where anyone can be a hero.

Each time you die, your child will succeed you. Every child is unique. One child might be colorblind, another might have vertigo-- they could even be a dwarf.

That's OK, because no one is perfect, and you don't have to be perfect to win this game. But you do have to be pretty darn good because this game is HARD. Fortunately, every time you die all the gold you've collected can be used to upgrade you manor, giving your next child a step up in life and another chance at vanquishing evil.

But you shouldn't listen to me. You should check out the trailer. It explains the game better then I ever could.

If you really want to READ about this game though, then you should check out our bullet list below.

Here's what Rogue Legacy IS:

A procedurally generated adventure. Explore new castles with every life.

Rogue-lite. Your character dies, but with each passing your lineage grows and becomes stronger.

Tons of unique traits that makes each playthrough special. Ever wanted to be dyslexic? Now you can!

More than 8 classes to choose from (9)! Each class has unique abilities that change the way you play the game.

Over 60 different enemies to test your skills against. Hope you like palette-swaps!

This is a well known game, is not in need of additional reviews, so I will just correct some of the misunderstandings about this.

1) This is NOT a roguelike. Yes there are some similarities, "Rogue" in the name, you have only one life at each play, and a bit randomization.

There are also many features of this game which makes it not a roguelike. a) It lacks proper RPG gameplay, since each class has only two upgrades and these upgrades are for between playthroughs not included in them. so you get stronger each time you die, but your strength is constant for only one gameplay time.b) Bosses are predefined. Some memorization or... grinding is required for a usual player. Reflexes do matter, also your grinding time. Mostly, your strategy does not.c)Yes, there is grinding. SInce there is persistance between lives. The game also gets harder by your newly bought upgrades, but it scales a bit slower, so yeah you are expected to grind as hell.d)since I already said that ur strength wont increase between two deaths, after getting enough "level"s rushing through bosses is a viable strategy. Think about average roguelike and you will see that calling this game a roguelike just because it is hard, semirandomized is stupid.e)Apart from looping with ever getting harder enemies, this game has a goal. So you can finish it. By finishing I am also meaning, being done with it, in like 20 hours or so. Yeah there is replayability, but you will be grinding the same stats all over again.

2) Saying this is not a roguelike is not a negative criticism like many thinks. It is a nice game, I enjoyed playing it, and finishing it. Mechanics are weird, most are solid. I had my fun. For me Barbarian and Shinobi seemed much more stronger than the others but I guess they are actually balanced. Music were quite nice, atmosphere is also nice. Not many are on with me with this I guess, but writing in Prince's Journal was quite high quality material, and one of the strongest aspects for me. I kept playing until I see the end of the journal, and slowed down afterwards. There are some unique mechanisms like Architect, and insanity in the fiber of the Castle is really well thought. So a well designed cross genre platformer, I am satisfied with what I got.

Rogue Legacy, as the title suggests is a Rogue-like. It's got randomly generated elements here and there with psuedo perma-death (You keep everything but your character when you die) which brings in it's 'Legacy' system. This Legacy system allows you to pick another hero, a child of your previous one and they inherit any stat boosts, items or runes (abilities). The overall concept of the game is that you must spawn various heroes to grind your way up to defeat various bosses in order to complete the game. This is one of the weaker points of the game in a way however. If you do not like repetivity then stay away as for the first 20-ish lives (depending on how good you are and how much gold you get) especially, you will constantly loop through the first area just learning the mechanics and enemy types and also trying to defeat the first boss. I have to admit it was a little frustrating and I could only manage like 5 runs before needing a break. It's not all bad though, as when you die you keep any gold you rustled up and that is then used to upgrade your castle (It's an upgrade system that unlocks more as it grows, like a skill tree) You can increase stats such as health, mana, damage and even unlock new class's for your future heroes as well as giving them extra abilities. There's a fair amount of upgrades to choose from so you can tailor it to your personal preference for the most part.

Okay, so let's talk mechanics and gameplay (a bit more in depth) So, as already prefaced, Rogue Legacy has you enter a randomly generated dungeon to face off against various enemies and bosses. The combat is quite simplistic and yet a bit difficult to master, especially downward attacks in my own experience. (This is with a keyboard by the way) Much like the controls themselves it's somewhat tight and has a nice feel to it. You are also given a spell and a class ability to play with which vary in strength and usefulness. The spells are selected at random at the start so this can be a factor which makes you pick Lady Chun Lii III (this game also has references) The Barbarian Queen over Sir Charles the Assassin. The spells are more-so a personal preference of what each person likes and also what you intend on doing with that character as some enemies and bosses are easier to fight with certain classes and spells. Another Mechanic which I have yet to talk about with the Legacy feature is that the characters each have traits, some of these effect the game visually, others gameplay-wise and some just comical. You can have a Giant, a Dwarf, a skinny person, someone who is colour-blind, someone who is permanently roided and the list goes on. Some of these have little effects such as IBS which just makes the character do fart sounds when jumping or dashing. Other traits such as Dwarfism allow for you to get into secret areas for free loot and other little shortcuts. This brings me to another element of the game which is Blueprints and Runes. As you explore the Dungeon you will encounter many a chest, these contain, gold or blueprints with special chests containing stat boosts and Runes. Any blueprint you pick up allows you to craft some new armor and any rune you pick up grants you the ability to add an ability to your character. The Rune Chests come with a price however as you must find them hidden in certain locations or you must complete challenges. Some of these are easier than others. There a many varying abilities which can be stacked to become more powerful, this further adds to that personal customization to play in a way that suits you.

Time for Graphics, Sound and Aesthetics. As you can see from the screenshots and trailer up above, the game does not boast any amazing graphical fidelity, it is quite basic. The Aesthetic however is rather quite pleasing to the eye and has a rather Paper Mario feel to it. When the sprites turn around they flip sides. It's a nice little nod and it looks quite neat. The designs on the enemies and locations are all pleasant to look at and you can usually tell an enemy from the background (There are enemies that are paintings which can catch you off guard if you don't notice them shaking). The sound design for most of these areas is awesome and is definitely one of the top points of this game. Each piece fits it's location and is enjoyable to listen to. The sound effects of taking damage, dashing etc are well suited and feel right.

I know I have yet to mention it but there is also a story behind Rogue Legacy. I'm not going to spoil it but basically there's an adventurer much like yourself, who's traversing the dungeon. As he goes about, he leaves journal entries behind which allows you to read his story and gives you hints on where to go and such. It's a nice way to add a story to the game which isn't entirely necessary. Also, this guy who's leaving these journals must be pretty good at the game as he goes through the entire thing without dying which is literally impossible for the player. Throughout the game there are also paintings that the devs have left of their previous games with some insight into them. It's a quiant touch that is interesting to read if you are interested,

So that's Rogue Legacy, I would definitely recommend it if you enjoy Rogue-Likes, Dungeon Crawlers or MetroidVanias as this game is a mash of the three. It's a fun 10 hour + raunch through a trap filled, enemy infested loot dungeon that will have you dying for more.